All told, the teams in the east have committed a total of $337,304,182 in cap hits this season to the men who man the middle. The average conference salary for centers this season is currently $9,637,262, with Al Horford topping the list with $26,540,100 to account for on his year-end W-2 form.

It should be noted that teams won’t necessarily pay out every dollar listed here. There are quite a few players who have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts. Some of those players won’t make it out of the preseason, while others will be sweating it out until January 10th. That’s when teams must waive players with no specific guarantee date written into their contracts to avoid having to guarantee their salaries for the rest of the season. In addition, incentive clauses that a player either triggers or fails to meet can leave a player with more or less money than his cap hit reflects. Still, the purpose of this list is to show the relative pay scale by position, which is why all contracts are included in this post.

I should also add that not every player listed below will play at the five spot this season, as some will likely see some time at power forward To maintain uniformity, I used their positions listed on the teams’ official rostersto determine which list to include them on. So if you see a player who isn’t expected to play the five for his team this season listed below, that’s why.

The Eastern Conference’s centers are listed below, in descending order of salary: